Nesciet. Hunc ego me, si quid componere curem, Si forte necesse est Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, = 35 40 45 50 55 any other') belongs to the verbs. 37. Spectandum, ‘beautiful.'— 39. Versate, scil. animo cogitate. 40. Potenter = ita ut potens ejus sit, suitable to his powers.' 46. From this line to line 72 Horace speaks of the mode of expression and choice of words. In verbis serendis; that is, in construction.-49. Indiciis = verbis: if it be necessary to form a new word, because the idea to be expressed was unknown before (abdita rerum.)-50. Cinctutis Cethegis. Compare Epist. ii. 2, 115, and following, where the Cethegi and the Catones are named as representatives of the ancient Romans. Cinctutus is one who wears the cinctus, a sort of apron stretching from below the breast to the knee: it supplied the place of a tunica, and was in so far more convenient than it, that it allowed free motion to the hands. Hence verba non exaudita cinctutis Cethegis are words which the ancient Romans did not know. -51. Dabitur excusabitur. -52. Habebunt fidem; that is, will meet with approval. Connect si cadent detorta (= deducta) Graeco fonte, if they shall be formed on the analogy of the Greek language.' This has reference chiefly to compounds. But this must be done parce, sparingly.' 54. Caecilio. See Epist. ii. 1, 59. The sense is: if the older poets were allowed to coin new words, modern poets have the same privilege.-56. Invideor for the regular mihi invidetur. See Gram. § 264, note 1, and Zumpt, § 413. 59. Signatum praesente nota, marked with the stamp of the present day;' a figure taken Ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos, Prima cadunt; ita verborum vetus interit aetas, from money.-60. Pronos in annos, as the years draw to an end;' that is, in autumn.-61. Before prima cadunt supply et ut.-63. The sense is we and our works must perish, even though they are as great as those of Augustus and Julius Caesar. Augustus, in 37 B. C., that he might exercise and prepare his fleet for the war with Sextus Pompeius, free from the danger of storms, connected the Lacus Lucrinus and Avernus with the sea, and thus formed a most secure haven. The form of the land has now been quite altered by earthquakes. Caesar had formed the design of draining the Pomptine marshes, and had made a beginning. Finally (line 67), Augustus had made improvements in the course of the Tiber, which formerly used often to overflow its banks and lay waste the fields. -69. Connect stet vivax. See Sat. ii. 1, 53.-73. From this line to line 98 Horace speaks of the kind of verse which must be suitable to the character of the poetry.-75. Versibus impariter junctis; that is, a hexameter followed by the shorter pentameter. The adverb impariter is an ἄκαξ λεγόμενον. This metre was at first used only in the elegy proper-that is, only in poems of lamentation; for the word you is derived from the old Greek wail eye. Afterwards, both the metre and the name were applied also to cheerful poetry (sententia voti compos.)—77. That is, who was the first writer of elegies, a kind of poetry in which no high flight is allowed (hence exiguos), is uncertain.-79. Compare Epode 6, 13, and Epist. i. 19, 25.-80. See Epist. ii. 1, 174.-81. Alternis sermonibus; that is, for the dialogue. The chorus has lyric measures. -83. Horace goes Et pugilem victorem et equum certamine primum Non satis est pulchra esse poëmata; dulcia sunto over the various kinds of lyric poetry, hymns, paeans, songs of victory, love-songs (juvenum curas), and drinking-songs.-86. Descriptas vices; that is, the various kinds of verse assigned by the Greeks, whose rule is founded on nature, to certain kinds of poetry. Operum colores, both the styles and metres suitable to each kind of poetry. Compare line 92.-90. Indignatur, like non vult in the preceding line, = non debet. Privatis=vulgaribus.-91. The feast at which the sons of Thyestes, killed by Atreus, were served up before their father, was a subject that demanded the expression of the highest passion, and was therefore a favourite with the ancient tragedians. -94. See Satires i. 10, 40.-95. Plerumque=persaepe. - 96. Telephus, the son of Hercules by Auga; Peleus, father of Achilles, who killed his half-brother Phocus. Both were banished, and lived long in exile.-97. Ampulla is figuratively used like the Greek Ahodos, of an ornate and ambitious style of language. Compare Epist. i. 3, 14.-98. Curat tetigisse. Gram. 371, note 2.99. From this line to line 113, Horace speaks of the expression of the passions.-103. Tunc, in that case.' Laedent, will touch.' -104. Male, etc. If the words which the poet has put into thy mouth (has, as it were, committed to thee to give to the public) are bad, and not suitable to the character. 108. Language, being the expression of the inward passion, should correspond with it.110. Post effert animi motus interprete lingua. 115 120 125 130 Non circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem, Unde pedem proferre pudor vetet aut operis lex. 135 Ad humum deducit=humiles reddit, affligit.—113. Equites peditesque, the whole Roman people.-114. From this line to line 135, Horace speaks of the characters, and the consistent representation of them. Davus. See Satires i. 10, 40.-118. In the war of the Seven against Thebes -a favourite subject with the ancient tragedians-the Argives were opposed to the Thebans.119. Either follow tradition, or, if you invent a story, make one quite consistent in all its parts. -120. Examples. Honoratum clarum. Reponis, bringest again upon the stage,' Achilles having been a character in many tragedies.122. Jura neget sibi nata, he must declare that laws were not made for him.' Armis, dative.-123. Ino was wife of Athamas, and mother of Learchus and Melicertes. Athamas, being driven mad by the gods, killed Learchus; whereupon Ino, with her other son Melicertes, threw herself into the sea, and was changed into a sea-goddess.-124. Ixion treacherously killed his father-in-law Eio neus. Io's sad story is well known, as also that of Orestes. - 128. Proprie dicere is to represent so that each character retains its peculiarities.' Communia are general characters, which any poet may represent; for instance, an avaricious, angry, or cruel man, and the like. To represent these well is difficult.-131. Publica materies is a subject which so many tragedians have handled, that it has become public property. This may be made a poet's own if he leaves the beaten track (patulum orbem), and does not translate merely. Nec sic incipies, ut scriptor cyclicus olim : 'Dic mihi Musa virum, captae post tempora Trojae 140 145 150 155 If he translates, he will bring himself into a position where he cannot take a single step for himself-exhibit his own talents.136. From this line to line 152 we have a slight digression in regard to the excellence of Homer's poems. Scriptor cyclicus. Cyclic was the name given by the Alexandrian grammarians to those epic poets who took their subjects from the circle' of traditions regarding the Trojan war, describing either the occurrences before the opening of the Iliad, or those after the death of Hector. What particular cyclic poet is here alluded to is uncertain. 140. Hic; Homer. There follows a translation of the first two lines of the Odyssey. Compare Epist. i. 2, 19.145. As to Antiphates, see Odyssey x. 100; as to Scylla and Charybdis, Odyssey xii. 85; and as to the Cyclops, Odyssey ix. 187.-146. The scholiasts observe that this alludes to the Thebais of Antimachus, a contemporary of Plato, who celebrated the return of Diomedes to Aetolia after the conquest of Thebes by the Epigoni. Meleager, the son of King Oeneus of Calydon, died when his mother Althaea, angry at the slaughter of her brothers after the Calydonian hunt, threw into the fire a piece of wood on which his life depended. - 147. Gemino ab ovo. The story of Leda is well known.-151. Mentitur, 'invents.'-153. From this line to line 192 we have precepts regard. ing dramatic poetry, referring particularly to the observance of the different ages of the characters. 154. Aulaea. See Epist. ii. 1, 189.-155. Cantor, here the player.' When he had concluded the piece, he called out 'plaudite,' thus soliciting applause. 157. Mobiles et maturi anni are youth and age. Decor, suitable words and |